


The Last of Us

by tin2lo



Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe, Father-Daughter Relationship, Other, Qrow is Ruby's father, based on the last of us, slight qrow/summer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-26
Updated: 2017-09-26
Packaged: 2019-01-05 20:51:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12197190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tin2lo/pseuds/tin2lo
Summary: The grimm have become stronger somehow.  They've begun turning people into grimm themselves.  Qrow and Taiyang have to get their girls away from the growing epidemic.





	The Last of Us

**Author's Note:**

> An AU I wrote based on the intro of "The Last of Us" video game.

“No, Oz, I…I can’t just…”  Qrow sighed into his scroll as he opened the door to his tiny house.  “Listen Oz, I don’t care how much I hate teaching at Signal or how much I need the money, I can’t just go on another mission for you.”  He paused as the man on the other line was speaking.  “I know but…”  As he turned on the lights to his house, he noticed his fourteen year old daughter asleep on the couch and once more, he sighed.  “Look, can we talk about this tomorrow?”  A couple more words were exchanged before Qrow finally hung up the scroll.

Ruby finally began to stir awake as Qrow took a seat beside her.  “Hey,” she said sleepily.

“Scoot over, kid.”  

Ruby did as she was told as she watched him rub his face.  “Fun day at work?” 

Qrow groaned.  After school had let out, he was stuck later for a meeting and then even later to finish grading.  As much as he hated his job, he couldn’t just leave it to be a huntsman again.  Not when he had Ruby, not after Summer’s death.  “What are you still doing up?”

It was then that Ruby realized how late it really was.  She gasped and got up to look at the clock.  “What time is it?”

“Way past your bedtime…”

“But it’s still today…”  She looked at her father with a sly smile before reaching for something on the side of the couch.  “Your birthday present.”  

Qrow looked up to see that she was handing him a box of some sort.  He was surprised to see a watch when he opened it.  He looked at her in shock.  

“You were complaining about your old one,”  she said before he could ask.

Qrow smiled and put it on.  Sometimes Qrow thought Ruby was too much like him, but it was times like these where he couldn’t help but see Summer in her.  “Where’d you get the money for this?”

Ruby began to lay down with her head in his lap.  “Drugs.  I sell hardcore drugs.”

He didn’t bat an eye.  “Oh good.  You can start helping out with the mortgage then.”

Ruby snickered.  “You wish.”  

A couple of hours later, Ruby woke up to find herself moved to her bedroom.  A call had woken her up.  She was confused.  The clock on her wall said it was 2 in the morning.  Who would be calling so late?  She picked it up quickly before Qrow could wake up, knowing that he needed all the rest he could get.

“Hello?”  She said sleepily.

“Ruby!  Ruby, honey, I need to talk to your dad.  Now, please.”

“Uncle Tai?”  The fear in his voice made her fully awake.

“I need to talk to your dad.  Hurry!”

Before he could say anything else, the line went dead.  “Uncle Tai?!  Hello?”

Ruby quickly got out of bed.  She needed to find her father and tell him about the strange message from Uncle Taiyang.  She heard the TV still on in his room and quickly made her way there.  “Dad!”

Once she got there, she realized it was empty but the TV was still going.  Where was he?  “Dad?”  The news report was blaring on about some kind of grimm attack.  When Ruby stopped to listen, she realized that they were reporting from an area not far from where they were.  Were the grimm getting closer?  The people on the newscast were starting to get frantic.

“There’s a gas leak!  Everyone needs to evacuate now!”

Before much more could be said, there was a large explosion and the signal went dead.  Ruby hardly noticed the TV when she saw the explosion itself right outside her window.  She was getting scared.  She needed to find her father.

Ruby quickly ran down the stairs but still no sign of Qrow.  She did notice his scroll blinking on one of the counters.  It only served to worry her more as all there was were more frantic messages from Uncle Tai.  Before she even had time to try and call him back, she heard Qrow coming through the back door and shutting it frantically.

“Dad?”

Qrow was covered in blood splatter and was completely out of breath.  He didn’t even stop to look at her.  He was very quickly digging through his desk drawer pulling out cartons of dust.  “Ruby, honey, stay away from the doors.  Has anyone come into the house?”

Ruby was even more confused and now slightly frightened.  “N..no…Uncle Tai has been trying to reach you…”

Qrow grabbed his scythe from the side of his desk and finally looked at his daughter.  “He has?  Good.  If he’s smart he’ll come for us soon.”

“What’s going on?”  She finally got the courage to ask.

“Something’s happened…the grimm…they’re stronger, more dangerous.  They’re affecting people in a way they weren’t before.”

Ruby shook her head.  “I don’t understand.”

Before Qrow could explain anything further, their neighbor was banging through the glass door.  But it almost as if he wasn’t their neighbor.  Half his face and half his body looked like the grimm.  Qrow quickly grabbed Ruby by the arm and put her behind him as he held his scythe at the ready.

Their possessed neighbor charged at them and as Ruby screamed, Qrow sliced threw him, killing him instantly.  He looked at his daughter.  “You alright?”

Ruby just stared at the dead body wide eyed.  “You..you killed him!”  She looked at her father as she pointed to the dead body.  “I saw him this morning just before school and you killed him!”

Qrow put his hands around her face and looked her dead in the eye to calm her down.  “Listen to me, Ruby.  He wasn’t our neighbor anymore.  Something’s happening and it’s changing people.”

She still didn’t understand.  “But…”

Before she could say anything else, they heard a car honk outside their house.  “That’s got to be Tai.  Ruby I need you to grab your scythe and focus.”  Still in a little shock, she obeyed her father and grabbed Crescent Rose where it was usually kept next to her father’s before following Qrow outside.

The first thing Ruby heard when she got outside was her Uncle Tai yelling at Qrow.  “Where have you been?  Do you have any idea what’s going on?”  

“I’ve got some notion.”

Taiyang finally took a good look at Qrow’s appearance and the blood covering him.  “What happened to you?”

As Ruby was listening to them argue, she didn’t even notice her cousin until she was nearly knocked over.  “Thank goodness you’re ok!”  Yang yelled as she held Ruby tight.  “There’ve been reports all night about the grimm everywhere.  Dad and I weren’t sure if they’d reached you guys yet.”

Ruby managed to pry herself from Yang’s arms.  Though they were cousins, they treated each other as sisters.  “We’re fine, Yang.”  She then thought back to their neighbor lying dead in their house and Qrow covered in dirt and blood.  “At least I think we are…”  she whispered mostly to herself.

Before anything else could be said, another explosion was heard not too far away.  “Come on girls.  We need to get out of here,”  Taiyang said as he directed both girls to the back of the car before getting in the driver’s seat.

Taiyang looked behind them to pull the car out and looked at Ruby.  “How’re you holding up, Ruby?”

“Fine.”  Was all Ruby could really muster.  “What’s going on out there?”

“The grimm are multiplying and getting stronger,”  Qrow answered while looking out the window.  “Not only that but they’ve somehow managed to make it so that they can turn other people into grimm with a single bite.”

Taiyang took a quick glance at Qrow.  “So you’re saying people are actually becoming grimm?”

Qrow nodded.  “Oz told me about it.”

“Dear Gaia,”  Tai whispered as the girls looked at each other wide eyed.

“Come on, we gotta get moving if we want to beat the traffic.”  Qrow said without anymore pretense.

For the next few minutes everyone sat in silence, not entirely sure of what to make of the current state of their world.  Even Yang, who was usually so bubbly and energetic, was silent.  It wasn’t until Qrow spoke again that they were all broken out of their reverie.  “Keep driving.”  There was a family on the side of the road whose car had broken down.  They were waving anybody down for assistance.  

Tai glanced at the man next to him but still hadn’t slowed down the car.  “Are you crazy?  They have a kid.”

“And we have two.  Keep driving.”

Taiyang listened to him reluctantly and continued to pass the family with the broken down car begging for help.  “I am not a kid,”  Yang said with anger.

Qrow responded without turning away from the window.  “Just because you’re supposed to be attending Beacon next year doesn’t mean you’re a huntsman yet either, firecracker.”

“Well we still should’ve stopped to help,”  said Ruby in distress.

Qrow could only sigh.  Not sure what to say to her to make her feel less hurt.  Tai answered instead.  “Someone else will be along.”

It didn’t take long for them to hit traffic.  Roadblocks and detours somehow lead them back to town.  The chaos had already set in.  People were running in all different directions, screaming their heads off.  

Tai and Qrow were close to panicking.  “Shit,” Qrow whispered.  “Try to keep going straight.”

“I’m trying,” Tai said as he moved slowly.  “There’s too many people in the way.”

Suddenly an entire group of people were running towards them frantically.  Some even climbed on top of the car.  Tai and Qrow looked at each other, finally understanding the severity of the situation.  Without another word, both men jumped out of the car with their weapons ready to do battle.

They got out so fast that they hadn’t even stopped to tell the girls to wait in the car.  Even if they had been told, they still wouldn’t have stayed put.  “Come on, Ruby,” was all Yang said before they too were outside ready to fight.

The dads were too busy fighting to notice that their girls were also fighting.  Yang was shooting bullet after bullet while Ruby was slicing through these grim who used to be people.  Ruby converted her scythe to a gun and quickly shot an actual grimm that was running towards Qrow.  He turned to see the dead beast before him before looking at who made the shot.  His eyes widened at the site of his daughter but rather than get angry, he just nodded his thanks at her.

The fighting lasted for another few minutes before everything seemed to settle down.  All four of them were breathing deeply as they tried to catch their breaths.  They were tired and they still needed to evacuate before more came. 

“I thought…we told you…to stay put…”  Qrow said in between deep breaths.  

“Well you didn’t…so we didn’t,” Ruby said, her breath all caught up.  She gave a sheepish smile when her dad glared at her.

Tai shrugged.  “Well she’s got a point there.”  Thus earning him a similar glare as well.

“So what do we do now?”  Yang asked as she loaded more dust into Ember Celica.  

Qrow stood up straight.  “We need to continue on.”

“But there are more out there!  We have to help these people!”

Taiyang sighed as he looked at his headstrong daughter.  “I’m sorry, Yang.  But none of us are in a good position to be doing anything right now.  We need to look after each other first before we can help other people.”  And with that, he turned away from her and walked back to the driver’s seat.  Qrow following behind.

Ruby tried to give Yang a smile as she huffed in annoyance.  Yang tried to smile back before turning to get back into the car.  If Ruby had blinked, she would’ve missed it but it all happened too fast.  “Yang look out!”

Yang barely had time to turn around before a beowolf latched onto her arm.  Ruby shot at once, effectively killing it but the damage had already been done.  As the dead body released its hold on Yang’s arm, Ruby quickly caught her before she fell to the ground.  “Dad!  Uncle Tai!  Help!”

The other two men quickly exited the car and joined Ruby where she was holding Yang’s bleeding arm on the ground.  Both men were panicking but trying hard not to show it.  “Yang?  Yang, honey, can you hear me?”  Tai asked his daughter as he tried to wrap a cloth he ripped from his shirt around her profusely bleeding arm.  She gave a small nod but her breathing was sharp and labored.

“Qrow…what do we do?”  He tried not to sound so scared, but Tai was holding his could be dying daughter in his arms.  If she died, he would too.  And if she turned into one of those…things…he wouldn’t have the strength to take her out.  How could he not protect her?

Before Qrow could even try and come up with an answer, a pounding noise was heard in the distance.  All three of them turned around to see another beowolf charging for them.  Luckily for them, the beast was shot and killed before it could reach them.

They quickly turned their heads to the direction in which the shot came from.  “Jimmy!”  Qrow exclaimed when he recognized General James Ironwood.

“Qrow?  Is that you?”  The general asked as he pointed a flashlight towards their group.

“Boy am I glad to see you for once.”

Another voice was heard in the distance.  “What’s going on there, James?”  

Qrow’s eyes widened when he recognized the voice.  “Oz!”

Ozpin let out a sigh of relief.  “Thank goodness you’re alright.”

Qrow shook his head.  “Not exactly.  We need some help.  My niece was bitten…”

Not another word was said as the two newcomers joined the group around the still bleeding girl.  “Let me see the wound, Taiyang.”  Tai reluctantly released his hold on her bandaged arm, the bandage barely slowing down the bleeding.

Ozpin removed the makeshift bandage and examined the wound.  “This isn’t good.”  He looked up at Taiyang, the distress evident on the father’s face.  “But it’s not the worst case scenario.  There’s still time to neutralize the threat.”

“She won’t turn into one of them will she?”  Taiyang asked with slight hope in his voice.

Ozpin shook his head.  “As long as it doesn’t spread, she’ll be fine.  But Taiyang we need to do this now.”

“Do it!  Whatever it is!”

Ozpin sighed.  “We’ll have to cut her arm off.”

Taiyang’s eyes widened.  “What?!”

James put an hand on Tai’s shoulder.  “It’s the only way to neutralize the spreading infection.”

Tai looked at all of the faces around him and then at the pained face of his daughter.  He shut his eyes tight knowing that there was no choice.  “Do it.”

Ozpin nodded.  “I’ll need you to hold her down and cover her mouth.  We can’t attract more here.”  Taiyang wrapped one arm across the front of Yang’s shoulders and the other hand clamped tight over her mouth.  James had his knife out and got into position.

Taiyang placed a kiss in his daughter’s hair.  “I’m sorry.”

Throughout the commotion, Ruby was easily forgotten by the other men, but not by her father.  Qrow pulled Ruby up from the ground by her arm to give the men more room.  “Ruby come here.”

“But dad…”

He didn’t even give her time to finish her sentence.  Instead, he pulled her close to him, burying her face in his chest.  “You don’t need to see this.”  He had one hand wrapped around her body with the other on the back of her head, trying to keep her as close to him as possible and making sure she couldn’t see what was about to happen.

Ozpin was also helping to hold down Yang.  “On the count of three…one…two…”

Ruby, despite her vision already being blocked by Qrow, scrunched her eyes shut tight.  Yang’s scream, even muffled by the hand over her mouth, would forever be burned into Ruby’s memory.


End file.
